Page 44 of A Vine Mess
The little girls were so caught up in their game of Marco Polo, they didn’t notice a shark was in their midst until Liam breached the surface with a playful roar that sent them all screaming andsplashing away.
Across the way, their mother tipped her head back and laughed, and a moment later, a man who probably wasn’t much older than Liam appeared at the gate, towing pool noodles, goggles, and a small cooler that I assumed held snacks and drinks.
“What’s so funny?” he asked the woman.
She pointed at Liam, who was now carefully lifting the girls out of the water and tossing them in different directions, their giggles turning to sputters as they went under and resurfaced. “He popped up in the middle of their little circle and scared the shit out of them.”
“And now he’s playing with them,” the man, who I guessed was her husband and the father of the girls, said disbelievingly.
The woman smiled widely, then flipped the brim of her sunhat over her face and reclined, closing her eyes, fully trusting a stranger to care for her children.
Then again, her husband was right there.
But Liam…at first glance, he wasn’t the kind of man you expected to be good with kids. Everything about him screameddanger—or maybe that was just to me. Some invisible red flag waving over his head, warning me off.
Unfortunately, like I was a goddamn bull, it only urged me closer.
The father set down his things and splashed into the water as well, joining Liam and his daughters.
I hadn’t realized the mom noticed my presence until she said, “You lucked out with that one.”
“I’m sorry?”
Her eyes popped open and leveled me. “Your guy”—shenodded in Liam’s direction—“you lucked out with him. Having a partner who is good with kids issoimportant,” she stressed, nodding at her husband, whose girls circled him like he was the sun, giant, toothy smiles on their faces as he played with them.
“Oh, we’re not—” I cut myself off, searching for some way to explain. “It’s not like that. We’re…just friends.”
The woman’s brows rose, her eyes darting between me and Liam.
“Could’ve fooled me.”
That night, the Toddfamily invited me and Liam to their campsite for dinner. The people we were meeting was slowly becoming my favorite part of the trip—Gertie and Corm feeding me pot brownies notwithstanding. But as I watched Jon and Laura with their daughters, and as those five little girls swirled around us all evening, making their demands, laughing at the silliest things, and having conversations in a language only they understood, I realized how deeply I missed my own family.
It had been years since I spent any meaningful time away from my sisters, parents, and Apple Blossom Bay. As much as I groused about the busybody townsfolk, I knew what a rarity it was to be part of a community that cared so much. I had a large blood family, but I had an even bigger found family, and I was grateful for that. People who took care of us when we were down on our luck, who checked in when tragedy struck, who simply said hello when you walked down the street.
I’d taken those things for granted the past few years, when Iwas so wrapped up in keeping Alfie happy that I stopped focusing on my own happiness. I found reasons to be irritated by my neighbors’ care and concern instead of accepting it for the gift it was.
And my sisters and parents—god, I couldn’t survive without them. A long time ago, my sisters and I had developed the emergency text system. Whenever one of us sent “SOS” to the group chat, we dropped everything and came running. They were there for me in ways no one else had ever been or likely ever could be.
Fuck, I missed them.
So I excused myself early and headed back to our cabin, the phone ringing with an outgoing FaceTime call in the group chat before I’d fully settled on my bed.
“Ellaaaaaaaaaa,” Delia shouted when she answered, her grinning face instantly soothing my melancholy. “We miss you.”
“Fuck, I miss you guys too,” I sighed. “That’s why I called.”
Delia turned the phone slightly so I could see Owen in bed next to her, shirtless with a book propped on his chest. He was far away, the screen too small, but the color of that cover was unmistakable—a bright, flaming orange.
“He’s been readingACOTAR,” Delia supplied, confirming it for me a moment later. “He’s all the way up toSilver Flames, and I’m just waiting for him to get to the dining room scene so we can reenact it.” She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively, and I barked out a laugh just as Amara and Chloe’s faces popped up on the screen simultaneously, followed closely by Brie.
“What are we laughing at?” Chloe asked. Aleah rested on her chest, her little lips parted and cheeks squished up as she dozed.
“Apparently, Owen is readingACOTAR,” Itold them.
My younger sister fanned herself. “That dining room scene gets me every time.”
“Exactly!” Delia exclaimed proudly.
